Close Encounter of the Insect Kind: “Check out the awesome face on this praying mantis. I can't get over the mouth, it's like something from a science fiction movie. Of all photographic styles macro is definitely my favorite. I am constantly amazed, in every photo that I take, by the intricate level of detail that exists on even the smallest of creatures. It's a stark reminder that a very complex and infinitely beautiful world exists just beyond our human-sized level of perception. Photo taken in Donnybrook, Queensland, Australia” – Andrew Young. (Photo by Andrew Young/National Geographic Photo Contest via The Atlantic)

Cathryn Shrimpton, 4, prepares to play the Angle Gabriel during a traditional Christmas Nativity on December 18, 2011, at St Mary's Church, Myton Village, England. In schools and churches around the country children busy preparing and performing in the telling of the traditional nativity story. (Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)

“I was born in the United States in 1985. As early as I can remember I’ve been a “doodler”. From even the early days I’ve always loved strange, offbeat, beautiful, and slightly melancholy things. Something about the mixed grabbed me. My love for sketching carried on throughout my high school days. Which is when I took a small class on watercolor. Watercolor is what birthed my passion for mixing colors and how a color can tell a story. In year 2009 I discovered digital painting and my new found passion for the medium. It’s been the favored medium for the past years since. I’ve used online tutorials and videos to help me learn along the way and then in late 2011 I took a workshop called Becoming a Better Artist. The beginning of 2013 I won a class from The Art Department which will start this spring.”

When he's driving, New York-based painter Gregory Thielker takes in the views that change from moment to moment: the road, the sky, other cars. “Inside the car it's easy to forget the outside temperature, humidity, the noise of the road”, he says. “But something happens when rain interrupts the view: the lens through which we are seeing is revealed. Water both obscures and highlights the landscape”. Gregory Thielker's exhibition “Between here and now” will be at Castor Gallery in lower Manhattan from early March. Here: “Complete Stop”. (Painting by Gregory Thielker)

Roof-topping enthusiast Daniel Lau takes a selfie with high-rise buildings down below as he stands on the top of a skyscraper in Hong Kong, China on August 15, 2017. A craze that began in Russia has now taken hold in Hong Kong, one of the world's most vertical cities. Mr Lau said he had been inspired by Russian climbers and that he was unafraid of the vertiginous heights he scales. (Photo by ImagineChina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Competitors take part in the annual Mud Madness event at Foymore Lodge on April 22, 2018 in Portadown, Northern Ireland. The adult version of the event includes two laps of an 8km course through 25 obstacles while the kids event is run over 2kms. The race is in it's eleventh year and is sponsored by McVities Jaffa Cakes and event charity partner Marie Curie together with other numerous charities and fundraising groups. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

A man wearing a “Pinhead” mask walks through the grounds of St Mary's Church, Whitby, during the Whitby Gothic festival taking place this weekend, on April 27, 2014. The twice yearly event attracts Goths from across the UK and beyond to the historic fishing town and is a great boost to the local economy. (Photo by Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire)

A freighter trapped in ice is shown in this aerial photo near Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior northwest of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario April 7, 2015. The biggest ice cover on the Great Lakes in decades is backing up shipments of everything from Canadian grain to U.S. iron and steel in one of North America's most important economic regions. (Photo by Kenneth Armstrong/Reuters)